By Robert "Doc" Cross

Rum, Rum Rum!

NEWS UPDATE: The final 10 entries for my 365 Doclopedia posts will all be singles for 10 different themes. Enjoy!

The Doclopedia #356

Unknown Famous Explorers…: Hubley Withers

Doctor Hubley Withers, an archaeologist from the University of Kansas, was visiting the Pacific island of Loowali when he found an old diary in a shop. This diary had once belonged to the great French explorer, Henri Gaillard, and his notes for February, 1855 detailed how he had found the possible location of Lost City of HamoHamo, one of the most sought after finds in all of archaeology.

Reading more, Hubley saw that the reason nobody had ever found HamoHamo was that it was underground! The cave leading to it was deep in the jungle near Mount Kamapalo, an active volcano. Filled with visions of fame and an escape from his heretofore unimpressive career, Hubley decided to tell nobody what he had discovered until he made sure that Gaillard had been correct.

After buying some supplies, Hubley set out for the location noted on Gaillard’s excellent map. Three days later, he located the rather small cave and made the 300 foot descent to the huge cavern that held HamoHamo.

It was spectacular! At least 2,000 people must have lived there and the level of preservation was incredible. There were statues and carvings and more things to study than a team of 100 archaeologists could catalog in a year! Oh yes, there would be prizes and recognition and fame for this find!

Hubley was so excited on his climb back out of the cavern that he did not notice how the near constant earth tremors of the past two weeks has intensified. Not that it would have mattered if he had, because when he was just over a mile from the cave entrance, Mount Kamapalo Blew up with the force of 6 Mount St. Helens, creating enormous pyroclastic flows and massive lahars that covered hundreds of thousands of acres in ash and mud 10 meters thick.

Including the spot where Hubley’s last thought was “Aw shit, now I’ll never be famous.”